An independent observer of the Forest Stewartship Council

On 25 May 2009, SGS Qualifor issued an FSC certificate to New Forest Company for its plantations in Uganda. Less than two months later, more than 10,000 villagers petitioned the lands minister to stop New Forest Company from evicting them from their homes. They accused armed groups of beating people, abducting them and destroying their crops and houses. Below are two articles about New Forest Company, one from the Ugandan newspaper, New Vision and one from World Rainforest Movement...[Continue]

As the FSC is considering how it should engage with potential future forest carbon trading schemes - and will no doubt be under pressure from the certification bodies, such as SGS and Rainforest Alliance, to move into this potentially lucrative market - it should take heed of recent developments concerning the United Nations scheme to certify international carbon credits.

The Times reports that "The legitimacy of the $100 billion (£60 billion) carbon-trading market has been called into question after the world's largest auditor of clean-energy projects was suspended by United Nations inspectors...[Continue]

The following has been submitted by the Irish Environmental and Social Stakeholders.

THE BEGINNINGS OF PLANTATION FORESTRY IN IRELAND

In the 1930s the now famous Irish plant collector Augustine Henry
brought the Sitka Spruce to Ireland and over time it became the basis
of a virtual 100% blanket monoculture in the Irish landscape - totally
alien to the natural habitats of Oak, Ash, Rowan, Willow, etc. Being an alien species, plucked from its North American environment, planted in vast areas and susceptible to attack from the pine weevil, vast quantities of pesticides were used and are still used...[Continue]

Of course, as FSC's Alison Kriscenski pointed out to Pearce, "FSC certification is not a guarantee that a forest is carbon neutral, and people should not use it to claim that." But that apparently doesn't stop Suzano from making precisely that claim...[Continue]

This article from this month's World Rainforest Movement bulletin illustrates that the problems with FSC-certification of industrial tree plantations are far from resolved.

The most common response to criticisms of FSC is that a review is currently under way, with a promise that the critique will be taken into account. This is the case with FSC certification of industrial tree plantations. In fact, FSC's review of its plantations policy started in 2004 (after a motion was passed at FSC's 2002 General Assembly)...[Continue]

FSC-Watch has received this announcement of the establishment of a new organisation which aims to fight the destruction of Sweden's forests, and to challenge the greenwashing of this destruction by the FSC.

We have received the following from 'Alert against the Green Desert Network' in Brazil, reporting on the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST) continuing occupation of part of the illegal (but FSC certified) plantations owened by Veracel. As we previously reported, the Veracel certification has been highly controversial; despite FSC itself finding that the certificate showed "a number of nonconformities with FSC accreditation requirements", the certificate still remains in place and SGS Qualifor, which was responsible for issuing it, remains accredited by FSC...[Continue]